Intersection of 2 surface plots in pgfplots

Question

My question is pretty much a duplicate of this one. I'd like pgfplots to display the intersection between tho surface plots properly. Unfortunately, my function is quite different from the one in the mentioned question, so I don't know, where the surfaces will meet. Would there be any kind of workaround for this kind of function?

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[domain=0.01:30]
\addplot3[surf] {0};
\addplot3[surf] {(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(y/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(y/100))};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Another hackish solution:

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[domain=0.01:30]
\addplot3[surf] {min(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(y/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(y/100))};
\addplot3[surf] {max(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(y/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(y/100)))};
\addplot3[domain=4:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({x},{118.89/x},{0.});
\addplot3[domain=0:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({x},{30.},{max(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(30./100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(30./100)))});
\addplot3[domain=0:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({x},{0.},{max(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(0./100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(0./100)))});
\addplot3[domain=0:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({x},{0.},{min(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(0./100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(0./100)))});
\addplot3[domain=0:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({0.},{x},{max(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-0.*(x/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-0.*(x/100)))});
\addplot3[domain=0:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({30.},{x},{max(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-30.*(x/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-30.*(x/100)))});
\addplot3[domain=0:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({30.},{x},{min(0.,(1-0.3)*e^(-30.*(x/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-30.*(x/100)))});
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Note that this kind of solution is less flexible, because the correct hidden surface removal depends on the position of the camera, and also on special properties of shape of the functions. If one could know the point of view internally, one could generalize the max and min function to make it camera dependent and in this way simulate hidden surfaces.

Answer 2

A combination of surface colors, opacities and parametric plots can get you close to the desired result:

Code follows:

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[domain=0.01:30]
\addplot3[surf, opacity=0.25, blue, shader=flat] {0};
\addplot3[surf, opacity=0.25] {(1-0.3)*e^(-x*(y/100)*(1-0.3))-e^(-x*(y/100))};
\addplot3+[domain=4:30,samples=80,samples y=0,mark=none,black, opacity=0.5,thick]({x},{118.89/x},{0.});
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}